The League of Extraordinary Vampires
by inexile
Summary: Vampire Superfriends! This story forced its way into my head after I finished watching the 1970's Dr. Strange TV show. . Moonlight, Twilight, Forever Knight, Angel, Conde Saint-Germain, Dr. Strange and The Da Vinci Code...Please forgive me!


The League of Extraordinary Vampires

Dr. Stephen Strange sat, slumped, in the circle of moonlight on the floor of his Sanctum Sanctorum, his head in his hands. Somewhere, in another world, none of this was happening. But in this world, his world, things were spinning wildly out of control. So far out of control that he no longer had the slightest hope of handling it by himself, even with his strength and knowledge.

Nightmare must be stopped.

"But how?" Stephen thought hopelessly." How can he be stopped without destroying him and driving humanity to madness?" The moonlight moved across the floor, unfeeling in its cold beauty. As the silvery light swept across his body, the Master of the Mystic arts remained, immobile. His struggle as silent as the night that surrounded him.

Suddenly he looked up, into the night sky. The moon shone. An answer had come to him from the darkness.

Weeks of research and preparation passed. Wong was busy going to hardware stores, hospitals, the Humane Society... not to mention taking a side trip to the Carpathian Mountains. Eventually, all was in readiness. The windowless basement room had been completely transformed. For Them.

It was the dark of the moon. Dr. Strange stood in the circle, surrounded by candles, holding a naked silver blade in his left hand. He begin to chant the ancient words. In the basement room, the air shimmered with power.

The ritual was finished. There was shouting and crashing from downstairs. Luckily, the binding spell he had in place would keep his new guests from killing each other. "Let them sort it out" Stephen thought wearily. The Sorcerer Supreme took a shower to get the blood off, and went to bed.

Much later, in the basement....

"You can FLY!" Mick and Angel exclaimed simultaneously, starting at Nick like he was some sort of freak. "How the heck do you do that?" "How do YOU go out in sunlight?" Nick countered, looking sharply at Mick. "Yeah, why don't you fry?" Angel asked Mick. "And what is all this crap about demons?" Mick responded, staring back evenly at both of them. "I really want to know about the sunlight thing, too" Eric said." Its like you got all of the benefits and none of the drawbacks." "What benefits?" said Nick, making a disgusted face at Eric. "We're evil." "Speak for yourself" said Eric, "I like being a what I am." "The sunlight will kill me if I stay out in it long enough" Mick protested weakly.

In the far corner, a Dr. Cullen was deep in conversation with the short, dark haired man who had introduced himself simply as "Saint-Germain". They were apparently both doctors, and had left the less educated members of the group to squabble among themselves.

Meanwhile, in a hospital in Brooklyn, the sleeping children were screaming. Harried doctors and nurses moved anxiously from child to child. They ones they could not awaken would die. Nightmare was feeding again.

The basement door opened. A thin, graying, distinguished looking man in an odd costume of blue tights, a big sleeved shirt and a cape stood before them. "I assume you are wondering why I have brought you here" he began.

After the Master of the Mystic Arts had finished explaining, unrestrained chaos broke lose in the basement. Everyone was talking over everyone else. Loudly. Until Saint-Germain moved to the front of the room. His presence was strangely commanding, despite his short stature. In an oddly accented voice he said "we cannot allow this mad creature to destroy humanity. I have been on the earth nearly four thousand years (at this point Eric shut up and looked at the short man intently) and I will not stand by and watch death when it can be prevented." As the Conde Saint-Germain finished this brief but impassioned speech, Dr. Carlisle Cullen moved to stand beside him, his tall pale form gliding across the floor with effortless grace. "I stand with our elder. As God has seen fit to inflict this curse upon me, I will endeavor to do good with it." At the mention of God, Nick looked pained. Angelus (or Liam, as he was once called, centuries ago) was the next to speak. "I'm used to fighting demons, my world is full of them. Just point me in the right direction." He smiled grimly. Mick St. John stepped forward "I don't know what good I can be against a supernatural being, but I'll try to help." After a brief silence Nicholas de Braban said quietly "With The Lord as my witness, I will provide you with any aid in my power." Eric Northman finally spoke up."Well hell, if there is going to be a good fight, count me in."

On the other side of the world, in Rome, the monks circled the suspended figure, chanting. Pale and white as death, his green hair made him look like a mad clown. A mad clown, trapped to serve their will. To cleanse the earth. To drain and destroy the innocent, and the damned. The chanted endlessly as he hung there, this being from Everinnye, caught in their web.

"So all we really know is that this demon has gone off his nut and is killing people in their sleep?" Eric asked. "Like Freddie Kruger" Mick added as an aside. "And he's somewhere in this dimension" Angel mused, "but we can't kill him, we just kick his butt and make him go home and behave himself."

"He can get into your dreams, and manipulate you" Dr. Strange cautioned. "Not mine" Dr. Cullen pointed out, "I don't sleep." "And you think I'm weird" Nick hissed at Mick. "OK," Eric continued, "so we have to find this guy, and figure out how to fight him. We have six Vamps, three of us can go out in the sun, one of us can fly. Dr. Cullen there looks like he's covered in Swarovski crystals, though, so we can't let him out around mortals in sunlight. And while we're all pretty strong, glitter boy there is the toughest." "We've got our personal strengths and weaknesses but it will be a good fight, no matter what we're up against" the large Viking finished enthusiastically. "I'll stay behind the big guy" Mick offered, observing Eric's unbridled lust for mayhem. Nick grinned.

"So far I have been unable to pinpoint Nightmare's location" Stephen said, "he seems to be heavily shielded." Mick looked thoughtful. "Sometimes, I, uh, 'see' things" St. John confessed. "If I'm where a crime has been committed, or I touch a victim. I see a little bit in the past. I don't know if the fact that the murderer is a demon will effect my ability."

It had been fairly easy to get into the Brooklyn hospital's morgue. Dr. Strange, Dr. Cullen and Saint-Germain were all familiar with hospital procedure. Mick could not suppress his look of horror as Dr. Cullen uncovered one of the small bodies. "Oh my God" St. John said, his voice thick with emotion "they're kids." "He's killing the innocent" Stephen explained. Mick reached out to touch the still form of the small blond child. So much like Beth, when she was that age... pictures swirled through his mind. And rose to a crescendo of pain. Mick fell to his knees on the cold morgue floor. "They have him, they won't let him go, they're making him... do things. Bound, can't fight back... the chanting." Everything went black. Mick woke up in another room at the hospital. Some unused patient room. Saint Germain was leaning over him. "We need to know exactly what you saw" he said in his strange, soft voice. "I can't.... it was horrible" St. John replied. "Perhaps this will help" Saint-Germain held up an antique seal on a heavy gold chain and begin to swing it gently. Mick noticed it was a sun, a sun with wings. "Its the eclipse, the winged eclipse" Saint-Germain said "look at it" The seal swung back and forth....

"We have everything we need" Dr. Strange said. Carlisle nodded. Saint-Germain counted backwards from ten, snapped his fingers and Mick sat up, gasping. "They're in Rome. Nightmare is being held by the Opus Dei." "What's an Opus Dei?" Mick asked as he got shakily to his feet, Carlisle steadying him."It means 'God's Work'" Saint-Germain replied with some bitterness. "While most members of Opus Dei do exactly that, to the best of their ability, a few members of this organization are, how shall we say, more creative in their interpretation of the will of the Deity." "Well, we will just have to show them the errors in their theology" Dr. Cullen said determinedly.

Back in Strange's basement."It will be dawn soon, the ones who sleep should rest" Angel instructed, "and everyone should feed. We're going to need our strength." Wong had laid in a good supply of human blood, as well as a variety of animals. The inscrutable Asian servant tried not to think about what was going to happen to the large bunny he had petted earlier. Better the bunny than more children.

Nick, Eric and Angel lay on cots in the darkened room. Mick crawled into the waiting chest freezer. The Conde Saint-Germain zipped himself into a body bag lined with his native soil. They slept. Carlisle kept watch. And thought.

The dreams came, unbidden. Trapped, helpless. The chanting. Always the chanting. Destroying the minds he fed on. Forced to destroy. To purify. The pain. Nightmares.. If a human had been able to see into their dreams he would've seen the horrors of the wars that ranged from Rome, to Viking raids, to the Crusades, to the battle of the Bulge. Saint Germain, Eric, Nick, Mick and Angel awoke each from their dreams of death and fire with a crushing sense of dread.

It wasn't easy to arrange to get six vampires safely to Rome. Wong explained the four coffins as a tragic single family traffic accident. Mick just wanted a window seat, so he could keep the shade down. Carlisle sat next to him. They did not talk much during the flight. There was really nothing to say, they would either be successful, or they would fail. And if they failed, the result did not bear thinking about.

In Rome, Wong set up a new Vampire base camp in the basement of a building near the Vatican. Mick drank a glass of blood and settled wearily into the freezer. European freezers always seemed smaller.

As soon as twilight fell, Stephen went out with Dr. Cullen to try and establish a more exact location for the prison where Opus Dei was holding Nightmare.

Despite the cult's best efforts a concealment, Dr. Strange was finally able to pick up on the mystic energy shrouding the abandoned bank building. "There are a lot of people in there" Carlisle told Stephen, "I can smell their blood." "We will attack at full dark" Strange said firmly "and this will end."

When they got back to the basement Wong had been busy. The Vampires were arguing over a pile of weapons. "Automatics jam, I prefer a revolver" Mick was debating with Eric. Saint-Germain and Nick were moving deliberately around the room, working out with a couple of swords, both exhibiting fine form. Angel seemed uninterested. "You don't want a gun?" Eric asked. "I'd rather use my teeth" Angel replied, "although if you have a rocket launcher, I've heard those can be pretty effective."

Mick had gotten the plans for the bank building off the Internet. Angel figured Nightmare was being held in the old vault."If you've trapped a demon, you'd want to put him in a secure place." Eric was all for blasting their way in. Dr. Strange agreed that all they really had going for them was surprise. Nick offered to fly up to the roof and eliminate any look-outs. Since the building was so heavily guarded, and wrapped in magical force, they were all just going to have to go in blind.

"Just like that, go in blind?" Nick asked. "We need a better plan. The key to winning any battle is a good plan." "Are you kidding?" Mick blurted out. "After what I saw in that hospital? We're out of time...." "Mick's right" Angel broke in. "Kids are dying. There's no time. We've got to go now."

On the roof of the bank, Nick lay doubled up, hearing Lacroix's voice echoing inside his head. Just past the door inside Angel whimpered and screamed as he saw Angelus kill yet another innocent victim. Mick could not stop seeing Coraline burn. Saint-Germain was, in turn, watching heretics burn. As soon as they had realized they were under attack the monks had turned the full force of Nightmare's power on the intruders, sending everyone but Carlisle and Dr. Strange straight into their own personal Hell. Carlisle fought on while The Master of the Mystic arts readied a spell. Even the strong vampire was nearly overwhelmed by the time it was ready. The deranged religious extremists just kept coming, driven by the strength of their convictions.

"By the Hoary Hosts of Hoggoth...."

The light of Agamotto blazed out, piercing their foul entrapping dreams. The Vampires were free. And they were all really, really angry. Spraying blood, lots of blood, drenched the walls.

At the end of the battle, surrounded by carnage, Eric was laughing hysterically. He would stop for a second, then look at Nick, Mick and Angel and start laughing again. "What is so funny?" Angel asked. "It's your faces... your freaking feeding faces. You know, when you 'vamp up'. How do you guys ever get laid if you go around looking like THAT whenever you want to put the bite on somebody" Eric finally gasped out. "I mean, those eyes... wait a second. "He finished,"You don't get laid much, do you?" None of your damn business!" the three vamps replied in unison.

"I do not wish to be beholden to you--Sorcerer" the green haired being spit out the last word in Dr. Strange's direction "yet I am in your debt." "As for you" Nightmare surveyed the group of vampires "I can grant each of you a gift, in recognition of your service." "Except, of course, for this one" Nightmare indicated Carlisle, "since he does not enter my realm."

Later, they dreamed. Angel looked upon a land pure,clean, untainted by evil. They were having a picnic. Buffy's hair was so pretty, soft and glittering in the sunlight.... Nick was greeted by Joan and walked with her across a field of spring flowers to the shining city on the hill. Mick, a mortal man, came home after a hard day's work, to Beth and the kids. Saint-Germain saw a world without prejudice or superstition. Eric got laid by Sookie. "It takes all kinds...." thought Nightmare, as he returned to his proper dimension.

Meanwhile, in a filthy, rain soaked alley, the lone remaining monk slumps brokenly against a wall. Clutching his bloody robes around him, Baron Mordo stumbles off into the dark, vowing revenge.


End file.
